From the 31st May to the 29th June took place the 2016 Water and Fire Tai Ji course.

It was attended all the way through by 21 students from Germany, France, Belgium, America, England, Holland, Portugal, Switzerland and Australia.

The daily schedule was very intensive : wake up at 5am, run to the top of the mountain just before sunrise, practice Qi Gong and standing meditation for an hour and a half before breakfast, or chant the Scriptures, have breakfast and complete temple cleaning chores, then move into a 3 hours long morning training until lunch. After lunch, we had a couple hours of free time to rest, before the afternoon training, generally also 3 hours long, until dinner. Finally, at 9pm, it is time to practice sitting meditation for at least an hour.

The students studied a very large number of methods and had a chance to put them into practice so that they may know how to continue using them after the course.

Early morning Qi Gong included 6 Qi Gong movements and standing pillars. Those Qi Gong movements allowed the students to gather Qi and to make Qi flow. A Daoist sitting meditation method was taught, to be practiced in the night to purify the mind and accumulate Qi.

The students then learned the Tian Ma Tai Ji form, the Heavenly Horse Tai Ji form made of 36 movements. The first requirements were for the students to memorize in their bodies the movements one by one, through an intensive process of holding low stances, sculpting the movement into details little by little.

We trained the form in Water style, that focus on combining the movements with the breath, and in Fire style, that requires speed and power as its methods come from sparring.

We also studied Tai Ji push-hand : legs methods, single-hand methods, double-hands methods, and finally double-hand methods with stepping.

To top it up, we entered into learning in details specific power emission methods : power emissions of the shoulders, elbows, hips, as well as kicks and knee methods, and silk reeling methods.

Finally, we learned methods for training Fu Zhu Gong, or unique skills, especially with sticks.

We were also taught one set of 7 Qi Gong healing movements, to be practiced to gather and accumulate Qi that could then be used for healing, for example through acupressure.

With just one month to study so much content, the course was really intensive, and the students had to put in a lot of efforts.

To conclude the course, we had a summary, and the students wrote testimonies.